Microbiology is essential for all the advancements in biology. It helps to inspect a living thing at a micro level which then leads to more significant revelations. Microbes are involved in many processes such as biodegradation, food spoilage, biotechnology, and much more.

They are helpful if inspected and analyzed correctly. Microbiologists make use of microbes in areas like agriculture, healthcare, and food production. Medicine is a big field in which microbiology continues to contribute a great deal. Many of the breakthroughs in medicine have been possible through microbiology.

Microbiology is this significant because it examines organisms at a microscopic level, the level that eyes cannot see. Our eyes cannot see them, so we need the proper equipment to carry, process, and examine them. That is why there are many big and small equipment or apparatus present in the laboratory. Each of them is equally important as the absence of any can create variation in results.

Small parts like filter tips and pipette tips are part of this equipment. Our focus will mainly be on the pipette tips extractions, their work, use, and applications. It will tell us how important of a work small tiny equipment like pipette can do.  

What is a Pipette Tip Extraction?

This extraction has a solid-phase extraction. Here, a sorbent is dispersed in a pipette tip poorly. What this does is allows a quick contact between the solid phase and aspirated analyte from the sample. This technique is famous among forensic and food analysis. It is because both the cases require small amounts of samples.

Sample collection is still complicated in biological scenarios despite all the advancements. The preparation methods are continuously being optimized. It is because easy and faster alternatives are being looked for.

Disposable Pipette Tip Extraction

This is a modification of solid-phase extraction. Dr. William Brewer (University of South Carolina, USA) was behind developing this. The disposable pipette tip extraction helps in reducing the amount of solvent and time of extraction. In disposable pipette tip extraction, there is a standard pipette tip. This pipette usually has a capacity of either 1 or 5 ml. It is filled with solid-phase extraction in two ways. Firstly, the sorbent is dispersed perfectly inside the tip of the pipette, while in a second way, the dispersion of sorbent is poor. In a second way, it will be dispersed between the two disks; one is located at the lower portion while the other one is at the top.

Theory

The disposable pipette tip extraction has the same theory as solid-phase extraction. The solid phase carries out extraction with affinity as well as the disposable pipette tip extraction.

The sorbents are activated in the conditioning phase through a solvent or multiple solvents. This activation is done for the molecular interaction between sorbent and analyte of the sample. Interferents are removed through either organic solvent or a combination of solvents.

Once the conditioning is done, the sample goes through suction which helps in mixing and contact with sorbent. This mode of sorbent distribution helps in adsorption equilibrium between the analyte and the solid phase.

Applications

There are many applications of disposable pipette tips extraction. The main ones being:

1. Environmental Analysis
2. Food Analysis
3. Forensic
4. Sample preparation

Advantages of Disposable Pipette Tip Extraction

A few of the major advantages of this extraction are:

•  It’s simple
• It’s fast
• Requires low volume of organic solvents and samples
• Less sample manipulation required
•  High efficiency
• High recovery
•  Automated process

Disadvantages of Disposable Pipette Tip Extraction

As it is a new method, there are certain disadvantages of this method too. They are mentioned below:

•   Low amount of commercially available extraction phases
•  High cost comparatively
•  Limitations for routine analysis

Conclusion

Interest and research around disposable pipette tip extraction have increased greatly recently as this technique has many advantages over the traditional solid-phase significant dispositions that is why it seems better. Due to such advantages, it sure can be used as an alternative method for sample preparation. 

Bibliography

Bordin, D. C. (2016). Disposable pipette tips extraction: Fundamentals, applications and state. Journal of Separation Science, 1168–1172.